A colorful wall blocks off a large section in Epcot’s Innoventions, promising a ‘more colorful world’ to come. While heavily rumored that the new experience will be sponsored by Glidden Paint (who already has a licensing deal with Disney Consumer Products and Interactive), today we received our largest clues to date as to what we may be able to expect when the experience opens.

The Disneyland Resort has announced that on Tuesday, August 6, it will allow Disneyland annual apssholders to preview ‘Disney Infinity’ from Disney Interactive, almost two weeks before its release on August 18.

Attendees to the event will have the opportunity to experience ‘Disney Infinity’ ahead of its release as well as meet with representatives of the Avalanche Team, the game’s development team. In addition, ‘many surprises throughout the event’ are promised.

Imagine a home that takes care of you, giving you the time, energy and money to take care of life. That home is no longer a pipe dream. It’s a reality that has come to life, featuring everything from smartphone-controlled security and climate control to smog-eating roof tiles. Opening on Earth Day, April 22, visitors can see and experience this home firsthand at the VISION House® in Innoventions at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort.

Ingersoll Rand, a company that specializes in home efficiency and security with brands such as Club Car, Schlage, Thermo King and Trane, has announced it has an entered a partnership with Green Builder Media to bring its automation technology to the VISION House at Epcot’s Innoventions. The new exhibit, scheduled to open in April according to the announcement, will replace the House of Innoventions exhibit.

Making the announcement at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Ingersoll Rand says the new exhibit will feature products form Trane and Schlage offering heating/air conditioning and security features to the demo home.

You’ll have to build/buy/program your own 360 degree simulator, but if you can manage without it, Raytheon has recently expanded the experience available online. Whereas previously you could relive your experience from the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World via a card received from the Innoventions Exhibit, you now have the opportunity to build the experience from scratch, just like at the park.

The new ‘Sum of all Thrills’ online component offers an on-screen design experience similar to the exhibit at Epcot’s Innoventions. Using mathematical and engineering fundamentals, students can construct exciting virtual roller-coasters, pilot jet-fighter planes, or race bobsleds that dip, dive and swerve through loops, turns and rolls.

IBM is hosting more than 850 students from schools throughout Central Florida during Engineers Week at IBM’s Smarter Planet exhibit at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort. The annual Engineers Week program, running April 13-15, is designed to help motivate and inspire young children in the local community to pursue technical careers and to excel in the core subjects of math and science.

Students, grades 2 through 8, are given a unique opportunity to meet real-life engineering experts from IBM and other program sponsors, and to think – and play – like engineers in a series of activities and rides. This year’s Engineers Week sponsors also include GM, HP, NASA, Red Hat, Siemens UL and Walt Disney World Engineering.

IBM today unveiled a new experiential exhibit at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort, which invites guests to discover the possibilities of building a smarter planet. The exhibit is powered by a new Smarter Data Center, providing a real-life demonstration of optimized computing that reduces energy costs by up to 25 percent.

SmarterPlanet presented by IBM offers visitors to the park a “behind-the-scenes” glimpse of how technology is helping solve the world’s most complex problems – from reducing road traffic and city crime to improving food safety and local water supplies.

The experience encourages guests to think about their individual role in creating a smarter planet as well as understand how smarter data centers are the heart of a more sustainable, technology-enabled world.

For example, hands-on interactive kiosks offer guests a “match” game that reveals societal and technological implications of creating a smarter planet. Guests will discover how more than two billion people are using mobile phones to open and use bank accounts for the first time; or that only 11 percent of the United States money supply is cash; or that by unplugging household appliance while not in use homeowners can save cash, up to $286 every year; or how smarter food systems track the temperatures of foods from one location to another to prevent spoilage. From the same kiosks, guests can take a Smarter Planet poll and compare their answers with those of other visitors.

The exhibit also features Runtime, created by Walt Disney Imagineering, which transforms guests into personalized avatars as part of the video game experience. Players run, jump and dance through a timeline of IBM’s achievements in the history of computing, journeying from the Babbage computer, through vacuum tubes and chips and bits, to the Internet. Guests can also email their personalized version of the game to any computer, extending the Runtime experience to their home.

It may be hard to separate the rev from the motorcycle, but guests at Innoventions at Epcot recently had the opportunity to learn more about a quieter kind of bike made by Siemens.

This new environmentally friendly electric motorcycle known as the “Smart Chopper” is a one-of-a-kind, custom electric American chopper designed by renowned motorcycle manufacturer Orange County Choppers. Building on its reputation for leading-edge innovation and quality, Siemens’ team of engineers designed the bike to travel as fast as 60 mph on a single charge using new and recycled materials.

Several months ago, reports of the WiFi near the Beach Club lobby was open to the public as opposed to the traditional means of charging for it. While some speculated that it must have been in error and would only be temporary, recent reports not only confirm it’s still available in the common areas at the resort, but that resort staff has confirmed it was an intentional, permanent change in policy.

This has now appeared to carry over to other Convention resorts (which all offer WiFi in public areas such as the lobby and pool areas) as we have seen reports that the Contemporary Resort also makes WiFi available at no charge.